SEPTA hopes to avoid work stoppage amid contract talks

While SEPTA had two more of its contracts with local unions expire Tuesday, the region’s public transportation organization remains hopeful that there won’t be a work stoppage.

The contract with the SEPTA Transport Workers Union Local 234 city division workers expired March 15, but talks are ongoing. On Tuesday, the contracts for TWU Victory Division maintenance workers and the United Transportation Union 1594 also expired.

“We have exchanged proposals with them,” SEPTA spokesperson Jerri Williams said. “We’ve met and continue with good faith and fruitful negotiations. As those talks continue, we like the TWU, are hoping to avoid a work stoppage. As long as we continue talking, we think a work stoppage will be avoided.”

Williams said the negotiations with the TWU Local 234 and the UTU 1594 are being done separately.

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According to SEPTA, the base salary for a TWU bus or trolley operator is $33,887 and top of scale is $55,620. With overtime, the average operator at top of scale makes $64,847.

SEPTA’s March 14 proposal to city division workers, according to the TWU, included SEPTA offering a five-year contract with lump sum payments of $500, but no raises, in the first and second year, followed by bumps of 1 percent, 2 percent and 3 percent in years three, four and five.

It also eliminated pensions for new hires — placing them instead into tax-deferred compensation plans — and required workers to up their share of health care premiums from 1 to 2.5 percent over the life of the agreement.

One SEPTA division that would not be affected by a strike is regional rail. Under rules of the Federal Railroad Administration, which is governed by the Railways Labor Act, members cannot strike until going through a complicated mediation process.

Regional rail conductors of UTU Local 61, reached an agreement with SEPTA last fall. The regional rail engineers’ contract expired on July 14, 2010. Those engineers have been working under the old contract since then.